the fox in the gardens

the man walked in a slow, nearly languid fashion, and although he seemed to be careless and inattentive, his thoughts were turned inwards instead, fixed on a deep brooding about problems unsolved and things not yet done. to be more precise, he was quite in a dark mood... nevertheless he couldn’t help turning his eyes off the beauty of nature, the green of the shrubs overgrowing the bent-down fences, the trees and gardens, the flowers peering through the thicket, the numerous voices of various birds.
deeply in thoughts, he wandered on, and a flock of sparrows made for the hedges as he passed by.

as he walked down the narrow lane in silence, he suddenly noticed a fox strolling through the knee-deep grass in one of the allotments.
the instant he had noticed the beast, the fox also had become aware of the human and stopped immediately, sniffing the air for the unusual and disturbing smell that came his way.
the man also had frozen instinctively, knowing that any movement now could drive the fox away, and so both kept exactly where they were, staring at each other, motionless.

after a while, the fox sat down on his hind legs, still eying the human suspiciously, his pointed ears twitching from time to time in the direction of the intruder. breathing slowly, the man maintained his position, watching the beast and wondering how this story would go on.

the fox waited for some minutes before he at least decided to retreat a few meters into the gardens again, from where he kept on staring at the human with an expression on his furry face which we would call “disbelief”.
the spell was broken, and the man sighed.
since the fox didn’t move, he decided to walk on again, and as he did so, the fox got up again and fled into the bushes.
game over.

a pair of ravens was wheeling high above him, cawing loudly, as he picked up his pace again.
slowly, a dried leaf slid to the ground and got crushed underneath his foot. there was a faint smell of autumn in the air.